Method and Apparatus for Providing Wireless Municipal Multimedia Service

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are systems, methods and computer-readable media for providing a pass to access multimedia services in a limited geographical area serviced by a fiber-fed, star-topology network (FFSTN). The method comprises receiving pre-registration information from a user to authorize one or more computing devices to obtain access to the fiber-fed, star-topology network covering a limited geographical area for a limited time, presenting the user with a plurality of customizable services each associated with capabilities of the respective one or more computing devices to access the FFSTN, and upon authorization, granting access to requested customized services for each of the one or more computing devices. Mechanisms are provided for handing off one or more devices as they travel from a first FFSTN to a second FFSTN.

PRIORITY INFORMATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/756,978, filed Jun. 1, 2007, the contents of which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to wireless access to multimedia servicesand more specifically to a mechanism for requesting and receiving a passfor a plurality of services in a fiber-fed, star-topology networkcovering a limited geographic area.

2. Introduction

Local wireless access to the Internet has been growing in popularity.For example, restaurants, hotels and airports often provide “hot spots”where WiFi access is made available. WiFi is a wireless local areanetwork (LAN) system that continues to grow and the radio modemsenabling WiFi communication have been built into every laptop now sold.As a consequence, those who have used WiFi in their home and have usedit in their business have now sought to connect elsewhere. As the desireto connect continues to increase, people expect to have access to highspeed Internet service in a large number of places, particularly indowntown or suburban areas.

This expectation has prompted many cities, towns and municipalities(generally referred to as cities) to realize that they were on the cuspof an opportunity. Cities have begun to realize that they can buildinfrastructure and receive revenue from owning their own communicationsbackbone which can include services such as WiFi. Cities receive someincome by allowing communication utilities, such as cable and so forth,to lease space for their lines but the opportunity for cities toactually own the system and thereby receive further revenues has beenlargely denied. However, a new view of the abilities of WiFi, and thefact that the government has allowed free spectrum for WiFi, have causedcities to observe that they may provide citywide or at least downtowncoverage for both visitors and constituents of the city. This capabilitybecomes very important in the context of homeland security, because manyof them are observing that if they combined their communication needs(police, fire, first respondents and so forth) and aggregated that withan offer to citizens and visitors, then basically the money saved onantiquated wireless communication for municipal use might actuallypartially pay for the network and provide an additional income stream.Cities have begun to declare that they are going to cover their mainareas with WiFi coverage.

Wireless LANs are usually connected in some way that each Access Point(AP) is connected usually to an Ethernet connection. The challenge for acity is that, in comparison to a business or a home where it is easy toplug a wireless router into an Ethernet jack, Ethernet jacks areunavailable on the street. The only way to realize such connections isto run fiber or a metallic backhaul (a link across a mesh to a wired orfiber connection) to each lamppost that contains a base station in orderto provide enough throughput. Essentially, this involves installing acable modem or a fiber drop at every lamp pole, which is prohibitivelyexpensive. Nevertheless, most cities, in order to support current andfuture needs to a broadband infrastructure for their citizens, havedecided to put down fiber rings of their own in a citywide distribution.The structure of such a network may be similar to AT&T's use of fiberrings to volume deliver information to hubs that have star-likedendrites to distribute information to local access areas.

An issue then becomes near the fiber ring, how does one connect onlythese multiple APs or base stations? One solution of connecting multiplebase stations to a fiber ring cities is implementing less expensiveversions of a WiFi system that uses WiFi in two ways. The first way isthe way it was always used, namely the connection from a base station toa laptop, as is normally done at a hotspot. However, some vendors havecreated a second instantiation of WiFi (called air interface) that usesa different MAC (media access control) approach. Media access controlessentially means that a device asks: “am I allowed to talk or not, andif so, tell me when I can't.” This is a way of promoting what is calledmultiple access among many users. Otherwise, devices would all try tospeak at once, like in a crowded elevator and the result would beincoherent. They would all hurt each other's transmissions. Media accesscontrol does what its name implies, which is to mediate the ability totransmit information in a way that doesn't impact anyone else who istrying to transmit at least minimize the impact. Cities have created asecond tier of WiFi that operates in a mesh topology. Mesh simply meansis that the nodes that are representing the base stations of themunicipal system are connected by fixed wireless links to other nodes onthe second tier system. When a packet arises from a laptop, it travelsfrom the laptop to a base station on the lamppost and then istransmitted collocated to another radio in the second tier. That radiotalks via a fixed wireless link to another node. The packet istransmitted from node to node until it gets back to the municipalityfiber ring.

Because the mesh of fixed links includes multiple connections, there isa natural resilience to the network because as packets are forwarded,the protocol will try to ameliorate any difficulties that may arise dueto failure of a link, traffic congestion or other reasons. Thedifficulty with such an approach is that meshed systems, in order tosave expense by using radio to relay the packets over many hops until itreaches a wired network connection called a gateway, lower thethroughput of the geographic network as a whole. In addition, the meshnetwork delays the packets and, as such, these systems have difficultyin handling time sensitive packets such as may be produced by voice overIP, video or other realtime, rich multimedia traffic.

Accordingly, what is needed in the art are improved methods for enablinglocal government entities, such as cities and towns, to implement avariety of services via a wireless mechanism that includes sufficientthroughput.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth inthe description which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Thefeatures and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained bymeans of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out inthe appended claims. These and other features of the present inventionwill become more fully apparent from the following description andappended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention asset forth herein.

The invention includes a network, a system, a method, acomputer-readable medium associated with providing a “pass” for acustomizable set of services in a geographic area such as within amunicipality.

A preferred method of providing a pass to access multimedia services ina limited geographical area serviced by a fiber-fed, star-topologynetwork. The method comprises receiving pre-registration informationfrom a user to authorize one or more computing devices to obtain accessto a fiber-fed, star-topology network (FFSTN) covering a limitedgeographical area for a limited time, presenting the user with aplurality of customizable services each associated with capabilities ofthe respective one or more computing devices to access the FFSTN and,upon authorization, granting access to requested customized services foreach of the one or more computing devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and otheradvantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a moreparticular description of the invention briefly described above will berendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which areillustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawingsdepict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not thereforeto be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will bedescribed and explained with additional specificity and detail throughthe use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates basic hardware components in a system embodiment ofthe invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a fib-fed star-topology network;

FIG. 3 illustrates a method embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a user interface for selecting devices and servicelevels;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example network according to an aspect of theinvention;

FIG. 6 illustrates priority usage and performance via transitioninggates and service levels; and

FIG. 7 illustrates network demarcations and MPLS/QOIS identifiers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Various embodiments of the invention are discussed in detail below.While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understoodthat this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled inthe relevant art will recognize that other components and configurationsmay be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the invention.

With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary system for implementing theinvention includes a general-purpose computing device 100, including aprocessing unit (CPU) 120 and a system bus 110 that couples varioussystem components including the system memory such as read only memory(ROM) 140 and random access memory (RAM) 150 to the processing unit 120.Other system memory 130 may be available for use as well. It can beappreciated that the invention may operate on a computing device withmore than one CPU 120 or on a group or cluster of computing devicesnetworked together to provide greater processing capability. The systembus 110 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memorybus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any ofa variety of bus architectures. A basic input/output (BIOS), containingthe basic routine that helps to transfer information between elementswithin the computing device 100, such as during start-up, is typicallystored in ROM 140. The computing device 100 further includes storagemeans such as a hard disk drive 160, a magnetic disk drive, an opticaldisk drive, tape drive or the like. The storage device 160 is connectedto the system bus 110 by a drive interface. The drives and theassociated computer readable media provide nonvolatile storage ofcomputer readable instructions, data structures, program modules andother data for the computing device 100. The basic components are knownto those of skill in the art and appropriate variations are contemplateddepending on the type of device, such as whether the device is a small,handheld computing device, a desktop computer, or a computer server.

Although the exemplary environment described herein employs the harddisk, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that othertypes of computer readable media which can store data that areaccessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memorycards, digital versatile disks, cartridges, random access memories(RAMs), read only memory (ROM), a cable or wireless signal containing abit stream and the like, may also be used in the exemplary operatingenvironment.

To enable user interaction with the computing device 100, an inputdevice 190 represents any number of input mechanisms, such as amicrophone for speech, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphicalinput, keyboard, mouse, motion input, speech and so forth. The input maybe used by the presenter to indicate the beginning of a speech searchquery. The device output 170 can also be one or more of a number ofoutput means. In some instances, multimodal systems enable a user toprovide multiple types of input to communicate with the computing device100. The communications interface 180 generally governs and manages theuser input and system output. There is no restriction on the inventionoperating on any particular hardware arrangement and therefore the basicfeatures here may easily be substituted for improved hardware orfirmware arrangements as they are developed.

For clarity of explanation, the illustrative embodiment of the presentinvention is presented as comprising individual functional blocks(including functional blocks labeled as a “processor”). The functionsthese blocks represent may be provided through the use of either sharedor dedicated hardware, including, but not limited to, hardware capableof executing software. For example the functions of one or moreprocessors presented in FIG. 1 may be provided by a single sharedprocessor or multiple processors. (Use of the term “processor” shouldnot be construed to refer exclusively to hardware capable of executingsoftware.) Illustrative embodiments may comprise microprocessor and/ordigital signal processor (DSP) hardware, read-only memory (ROM) forstoring software performing the operations discussed below, and randomaccess memory (RAM) for storing results. Very large scale integration(VLSI) hardware embodiments, as well as custom VLSI circuitry incombination with a general purpose DSP circuit, may also be provided. A“module” as referred here may relate to a combination of software andits associated hardware components combined to perform the recitedfunctionality.

FIG. 2 illustrates generally a preferred network environment in whichthe present invention is applicable. The network 200 will preferably beassociated with a geographic area 208 which may be a city, town,municipality, or any other local entity. As is noted elsewhere in thisdisclosure, an example may be a town or a resort in which can fund thebuild out of the network to enable visitors or people that live there toobtain access to a variety of services. A fiber ring 202 communicateswith a plurality of base station 204 via fiber links 206. This may bereferred to as a fiber-fed star-topology network, which comprisesnumerous small-cell radio ports or base stations which can sustain alarge throughput and the necessary quality to provide a rich multi-mediaexperience to users moving though out the municipality. The necessarycomputer servers or other computing equipment (not shown) will provideboth the control of the functionality disclosed herein regardingpre-registration and access to one or more computing devices within themunicipality 208.

An important service feature of such a network is the compelling contentthat resides in video games, music, movies, telephone service, means topurchase products, etc. An aspect of the invention is to enable citiesto provide these advanced services for vacationers and citizens alikeand that through the fiber-fed, star-topology network preserve thequality of service. The municipalities will preferably not provide theseservices using a radio mesh for the second tier backhaul but wouldrather use the direct fiber feed using what is called passive fiber.

Passive fiber is similar to what is called LightSpeed, invented by SBC.However, it is representative of a lot of broadband buildouts, and it isbased on the principle that the only way the network can really deliverhigh throughput to a neighbor is to use fiber. Those of skill in the artwill be familiar with the SBC LightSpeed project which deploys fiber tooutlying nodes in the network that deliver voice, video and dataservices to households. The most expensive part of the delivery systemis actually those few feet from the house to the curb. Most houses havecopper wires currently, so the SBC LightSpeed offer runs fiber to theneighborhood. The network is called a fiber PON (passive opticalnetwork) which means it has no active optical or electronic repeaters init. The PON uses only splices in multiple wave-lengths over the fiber todetermine separation of individual content. LightSpeed is anevolutionary way that seeks to use fiber to the neighborhood, eventuallyfiber to the curb, and connects houses by DSL (digital subscriber line)or VDSL, which is a shortened acronym for very high speed digitalsubscriber line. One reason the throughput is fast is that, unlike theoriginal DSL, the copper pair doesn't have to go all the way back to thecentral office, it can actually stop in the neighborhood. The length mayonly be a few thousand feet long as opposed to 10,000 or 15,000 feet.The LightSpeed network or similar networks will eventually expand tofiber all the way to the home.

Municipalities are thinking in a similar fashion because their municipalnetworks would be municipally owned duplicates of LightSpeed and, in thelong term, may rent infrastructure facilities to private televisioncompanies.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, a municipality wouldimplement what AT&T has called a fourth generation (4G) wirelesscommunication network. Such a network is based on the 802.11 standard,but is actually more capable of enabling multi-media communication,particularly QoS-bound multi-media. The network utilizes fiber-fedmultiple base stations each having a small cell. The network ispacket-based and Ethernet compatible. Such networks are fundamentallydifferent from cellular technologies and are more aligned with 802.11wireless LAN technologies to provide very high speed, carrier grade QoSand SLA capability, security and advanced resource management, such asinterference avoidance, automatic spectrum adaptation and selforganization. 4G connectivity is easily integrated into computers, PDAs,VIOP phones and dual-mode cellular/4G handsets. Those of skill in theart will understand the basic requirements for 4G carrier networkingwhich includes the architecture, VLSI, reference designs, driver andnetworking software. An aspect of the 4G enhancement to 802.11 is aconcept called “Mediaplex” because a point-coordinated architecture andcompanion MAC protocol which separates access and bearer functions inthe time dimension and establishes admission control, schedulestransmission and allocates time intervals in a superframe fornon-contention communication of packets. Mediaplex provides protocolenhancements that allow base stations to act as “super users” of aresource and to synchronize base station transmission and supportnegotiation for shared radio resources. This protocol enables meshedoperation with other nearby base stations one reuse distance away.

What the preferred 4G network enables is that WiFi changes from justbeing a wireless substitute for an Ethernet cord to a genuine publicinterface, like cellular, which means that its specifications enable theuse of the same device everywhere in the municipality and receiving therough equivalent of service everywhere. In other words, each user has anexpectation of QoS and they get it wherever they connect. It'scompatible with existing and future hardware so that users are notfrozen out by saying, “You can't operate here because you get CDMA andwe only do TDMA.”

Municipalities which would implement a 4G fiber-fed star-topologynetwork utilizing small cells as disclosed in FIG. 2 could operate sucha network in at least three ways. One, the cities could operate it in astandard “list spot” manner as an internet access means. Two, the citiescould operate it as a municipal services network and save money onantiquated radio systems. Three, the cities could grant vacationers apackage deal that is effectively an all-you-could-eat offer so that ifyou stay in that city and vacation, regardless of where you stay,whether you rent a house or a condo or an apartment or camp, the usergets a “summer pass” which entitles him/her to essentially all of thecontent that can be accessed over the network. The content may beInternet service, phone calls, e-mail, other personal communication suchas SMS messages or instant messages, movies, gaming, music, etc. Theuser logs onto this system once after securing or pre-registering forthe summer pass (for presumably a fee). The user chooses the servicesthey want and would be able to configure those services to best meettheir needs. The user does this through a “dashboard,” which wouldbecome available when logged onto the network. Basically, the user logsonto the network and it presents a special page, wherein the user inputsthe summer pass authentication number. The system effectively presentsan array of services that the user can customize as desired.

For example, the user could selectively forward their phone calls fromtheir home to the summer address, but only if it met the criteria likeif it's from a particular family member, an emergency call from thepolice, etc.

In another example, the user could configure movies for the kids toreceive, so that they could only pull down G-rated movies, or if theuser particularly likes science fiction only, then it would offer themonly sci-fi movies so the user wouldn't be burdened with having to gothrough all the other genres. For games, again, the system provideschild protection capabilities or it may only offer the particular kindof parent-approved games. Further, the user can identify in thedashboard that the gaming device is a Nintendo or a Play Station 3portable, etc. Accordingly, the dashboard enables purchasers of thesummer pass to configure and control the access to the numerous possiblemulti-media services available within the municipality networkenvironment.

Another example of the functionality of the present invention isprovided. Assume a user has a laptop and is bringing his family on avacation to a resort. Both the husband and the wife have cell phones,but the two children attending the trip have no computing devices. Thedashboard enables an adult in the family to use their laptop, access thedashboard and either configure their current computing devices (two cellphones and laptop) to a summer pass program and/or include additionaldevices to lease. In this regard, the dashboard interface enables a userto configure the properties of a particular device to ensure that thesystem can allow the users to join the network and enables apre-authentication process that allows everyone to reach a particularpage where they can authenticate on the network and tell the system whatdevices they have. FIG. 4 illustrates one example screen in a dashboardinterface. Window 400 includes a page that enables a user to click onthe devices that they will bring, such as a cell phone, laptop, Gameboy,PDA and so forth. There are also options to click on devices to leasewhile at the resort or in the municipality. These also include a listingof the available devices that users can borrow. From this initial page,users will further be able to, either through their own devices orleased devices, identify each individual device and configure thosedevices in advance, such that upon entering the resort or othermunicipality the users will be able to be directed to opportunities fortheir multi-media content.

As an example of how this may be done, the family discussed above may beable to enter that they are going to bring two cell phones and a laptopand desire to lease two DVD/video players which also may include theability to communicate with the network wirelessly. Therefore, as eachof these is selected further pre-registration and selection ofmulti-media services and content are presented to the user. Therefore,the user may identify a cell phone number and services such asforwarding phone calls that are directed to home to that cell numberduring the duration of the vacation at the resort. The laptop may beidentified in some manner such that Internet access is automaticallygranted as well as perhaps options to see certain movies that arepre-selected or be presented with certain types of movies or othermulti-media presentations on the laptop. Similarly, the children havebeen given portable media players, such as DVD players or small devicesthat have means to wirelessly communicate with the network, these may beconfigured for Disney movies or only G rated movies such that when thefamily arrives at a hotel room within the resort or municipality, thechildren will not have to carry or bring a stack of DVD movies, but willbe able to browse pre-configured menus on their portable media devicesand select particular movies that are known to be appropriate inadvance. Enabling simply pre-configuration of each device in advance canrender the experience of the family at the resort much more enjoyableand seamless.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 4 the user also, once the chosen devicesare identified, may be able to click on the desired service level whichwill provide the various levels of content and quality of service. As isshown, for each chosen device the user can desire the platinum, gold,silver, or bronze levels of service that are provided by way of example.FIG. 6 below illustrates some example of these various service levelsthat may be selected. As will be known with skill in the art, there aremany variations on the types of service levels and ways to characterizesuch service levels.

Behind the dashboard shown in FIG. 4 are a number of service levelagreements (SLAs) which are in place with various content providersand/or network providers. Having the various SLAs in place enables thesystem to present options for a summer pass which the system can deliverand as a user chooses the various devices and possibly Internet speedsbehind all of the decisions, each of those decisions is supported fromone or more content and service providers having SLAs with themunicipality. The mapping of all of these various services to individualuser devices in the context of a summer pass is performed by a sessioncoordinator 509 discussed more fully below with reference to FIG. 5.

FIG. 3 illustrates the basic steps of a method embodiment of theinvention. The method is preferably practiced to provide a pass toaccess multimedia services in a limited geographical area serviced by afiber-fed, star-topology network. The method comprises receivingpre-registration information from a user to authorize one or morecomputing devices to obtain access to a fiber-fed, star-topology network(FFSTN) covering a limited geographical area for a limited time (302),presenting the user with a plurality of customizable services eachassociated with capabilities of the respective one or more computingdevices to access the FFSTN (304) and, upon authorization, grantingaccess to requested customized services for each of the one or morecomputing devices (306). The presented plurality of customizableservices may include one or more of the following: call forwarding toone or more of the computing devices to be authorized or the FFSTN,control of available movies, video or music, control of available games,access to the Internet, and access to means for personal communicatingsuch as emails, short messaging, instant messaging or other services.The services may also include a controlled forwarding and dialoginteraction with senders of voice mail messages, emails or other typesof messages wherein the system may obtain a level of urgency of anyparticular communication prior to forwarding that communication to theuser in the summer pass environment.

The FFSTN may be owned by a local government entity such as a city, townor municipality. At least one of the one or more computing devicesreceiving access to the FFSTN may be leased for the duration of thepass.

Another aspect of the invention involves providing as part of the passfor each computing device plurality of customizable services includescontrol of purchasing power based on each computing device authorized onthe FFSTN for the duration of authorization. For example, the system mayenable parents to connect $100 to each of their children's computingdevice for the duration of the summer. Within the municipality, thechild can then purchase items via the summer pass as well. Then at apoint of sale, the retail attendant may either enter data into theportable computing device or receive information from the devicemanually or via a wireless communication of data to purchase an item anddeduct from the pre-established amount for that device. This process canincrease the ease with which users of the summer pass can purchase itemswithin the municipality and also aid visitors in controlling the use ofmoney on their vacation.

FIG. 5 illustrates how the summer pass may enable access to the servicedelivered by a municipality and how inter-municipality services mayexist. A multi-municipal network 500 is illustrated by way of example.To deliver service in a municipality, a wireless network is deployedwithin municipality #1. The municipality's infrastructure might consistof the VoIP gateway 512, an Ethernet switch 510, and an RF systemcoordinator 508. The VoIP gateway 512 allows delivery of local phonecalls into the local exchange. The Ethernet switch 510 supports multipleconnections 538 of simultaneous users and handles the gigabits of databeing transferred between users and the system coordinator 508. Basestations 540 provide coverage to multiple smaller cells 514 in themunicipality. Links 538 connect the base stations 540 to the Ethernetswitch 510. The RF system coordinator 508 communicates with the RFelements within the system and manages access frequency usage of thesystem. The next step up from the Ethernet switch is the sessioncoordinator 509. While the RF system is coordinating and lining a userup to a communication channel, the session coordinator 509 maps thatchannel out to the different services available and handles securityassociated with that service. The session coordinator 509 matches thevarious flows of information to the one or more computing devices withinthe user's summer pass to provide the various services. The sessioncoordinator 509 manages the flow of information from preferably thelocal network and isolates to some extent the communications from thebroader network while providing security. A Stratified service server516 determines whether traffic should be aligned towards the internet ortoward a local provider based on better performance, reduced cost,failure recovery, improved user experience and so forth. For example, ifa user is accessing the internet for some service but the Stratifiedservice server 516 learns through a series of discovery mechanisms thatthe same service is available through an alternate improved path, theStratified service server 516 can reroute that flow or coordination ofservice to that preferred path to improve the experience, reduce cost,or recover from possible failures that may occur.

The stratified service server 516 and the session coordinator 509 areboth connected to an alternate high-speed managed packet network 506A,which can give preferred services to users at an additional cost. Thisgenerally represents any kind of network that a municipality or aservice provider may have a business agreement where to provide servicesand data. The Alternate-High Speech Managed Packet Network 506A mayrepresent a private data center such as an AT&T or Verizon data center.For example, a municipality may contract and may engage in a servicelevel agreement with a company such as AT&T or Verizon to provideservices as a primary service provider rather than provide services in aroaming context. The alternative is to route the users through theinternet 506B. From either the packet network 506A or the Internet 506B,the user is routed to a service provider 518. A typical service provider518 might contain a session border controller 540 that demarks thatservices entering the core group of services using the standard IPMultimedia Subsystem (IMS) Core 546. The IMS Core is an architecturalframework that delivers IP Multimedia services to end users. The HSS,shown in FIG. 5, is the home subscriber server or the user profileserver function. This is the master user database that supports the IMSnetwork utility that is actually handling the call sessions orcommunication. The HSS contains subscription-rated information such asuser profiles and can perform authentication and authorization of theuser and can further provide information of the physical location of theuser in a means known to those with skill in the art.

The summer pass application servers 550 are on top of that core 546 andkeep track of user-related information such as content 552, contentconfigurations 554, communication servers 551, location 556, andpresence 560. The summer assistant server 562 would essentially act asthe user's agent. For example, if the user was on summer vacation, thesummer assistant server 562 configures the services the way the userwants in the environment. The service provider 578 also includes anetwork session coordinator 548 and the session coordinator database544. These enable the core capability which allows the system to remappeople's experience to anything that's needed at that point in time.

The session coordinator 509 and the stratified service server 516utilize the network session server 548 and database 544 to coordinate aperson's needs, uses, and network demands to match up a user with theirservices that they need in a private and secure manner. The serviceprovider 518 might also contain a legacy service gateway 542 in order tomaintain access for users who still use legacy services. The serviceprovider 518 enables the user to have configurable services in thesummer pass agreement. For example, the service provider 518 may forwardcalls to their home telephone number, but only from certain people andonly in emergencies. The system may engage in a dialog with the callersuch that the caller may be able to indicate via pressing a touch tonenumber or via spoken natural language dialog that the call was anemergency in which case the system will forward the number to yoursummer pass environment. Furthermore, other communications such as shortmessages, emails and so forth may automatically engage the sender in adialog to determine whether to forward the email to the user.

For example, it is known in Microsoft Outlook to use a “out-of-officeassistant” in which the user if he or she is out of the office mayautomatically generate a single responsive email to the sender.Typically, this responsive email notifies the sender that the user isout of the office and provides information on how to call an assistantor leave a message or when the user will contact the sender. Therefore,rather than simply sending a responsive email, the system engages in asimple dialog in which the responsive email may include several optionsto grade the level of importance of the email such that if it is anemergency email from the sender, such importance can be identified via aclick mechanism and upon which the email can then be forwarded to theuser in their summer pass environment. The type of dialog that engagesthe sender of a message may depend upon the type of the method used tosend the communication, the ability of device i.e., whether one issitting at a laptop computer or sending a short message via a handhelddevice and so forth.

One advantage of the service provider 518 is that it is also scalable inthe sense that the service may be shared by many municipalities whichcan also share the expense of the system. When content is to bedelivered to the user via the alternate high speed managed packetnetwork, at least one via interface 504A, 504B may be used to enablecommunication of data between the packet network and content provider502A, 502B.

Another aspect of FIG. 5 relates to the user roaming between multiplemunicipalities. If the user wants to move between multiplemunicipalities, the system 500 can expand their summer pass withoutsuffering an interruption in service. The second municipality has alocal infrastructure separate from the first municipality. For example,the second municipality has its own RF system coordinator 532, Ethernetswitch 534, VoIP gateway 530, session coordinator 511, and stratifiedservice center 535. When the user roams from the first municipality tothe second, the session coordinator 511 will get the user's informationusing either the same service provider 518 or a different serviceprovider that shares a peering or commercial arrangement with the firstservice provider. Thus, the user can move from one municipality to thenext without losing or having to reconfigure which services they desire.This is a handing off approach from one municipality to another.

We next discuss an example of a user who has ordered several services ina summer pass such as Internet access on a computer or other device andcell phone access and then the scenario of when that user moves frommunicipality #1 to municipality #2. As the user registers for a summerpass and receives a log-in and a password, they gain access to thesystem. Using the web-based services discussed herein, they configurevarious devices and the services for the summer pass. As an example ofmunicipality #1 may be where a user sets up their summer pass and thismunicipality may support a “wall garden” access to just the summer passenvironment to enable the user to surf the Internet from their hotelroom or in the municipality or it may be part of being able to receiveinformation on their TV in the hotel room and use that as a browser toget access to the server to sign up for services and so forth. Theaccess coordinator sets up a pass that allows you to access the systemand nothing outside of your summer pass. Once the summer pass is set up,the system uses flow-through provisioning which actuates the variousservices associated with the summer pass. One aspect of the inventionmay be a “summer assistant” which is part of the service provider 518features that for a minimal fee for a year it can maintain your accountand once you have configure certain key phone numbers and other aspectsof your summer pass you won't have to reenter the same information eachtime. Therefore, as the user may go through a dashboard and provide callforwarding and details (such as when my sister calls here is what I wantto have done with that phone call) and so forth. Such information can bemaintained once it has been configured so it does not have to bereentered every time a summer pass is desired.

One possible mechanism to simplify the approach for specifyingforwarding services is through an agreement with the user's telephonecompany (and with proper authorization) to pull up the user's phone billfor last month or the last several months and enable the user to go downthe list and click on which numbers that they recognize and that theywould want to be forwarded into their summer pass environment. This mayprovide a more simple way for the user to be able to configure theirsummer pass without entering multiple digits of each phone number.

In another example, the summer pass may be a winter pass where skierswho go to Aspen every other weekend may also set up a similararrangement such that every time you enter the municipal environment youalready are remotely programmed and the appropriate flow throughprovisioning is done and the services according to your pass areremotely programmed. Therefore, there may be a TGIF pass or weekend passor any other kind of pass may be configured according to the principlesdisclosed herein.

Some users may have dual cell phones such that they may have both CDMAor TDMA services as well as a protocol which enables them to communicatethrough high speech fiber optics with a cell phone. Clearly, suchdevices may be configurable through the dashboard and they may be ableto communicate with the network that they want to use an ultimate modeof operation to screen calls, push voicemail access for certain callersand provide your path through a list of numbers of people would beenabled to reach me. In other cases where users may have devices such asBlackberry's or Palm Trio devices then they would be able to selectcertain functionality such as web clipping and a speed feature wherethey may want to be able to obtain access to the Internet with reducedcontent because of the size of their screen. In such a case as the userengaged in the dashboard to configure their devices the sessioncoordinator 509 would map the user to the right services. In a wirelesscase, it may use the wireless access portal (WAP) to map to the desiredservice with the device. The session coordinator 509 would open up aconnection out of the application server or the service provider who isproviding that kind of service to the device and sure that the data iscommunicated securely and reliably to your device.

Continuing on with the scenario of a person moving from one municipalityto another municipality, when the user leaves municipality #1 andarrives in municipality #2 the prime issue is that the sessioncoordinator 511 will receive the necessary information back from ashared database. Municipality #1 and Municipality #2 may beinter-managed by the same overall service provider 518 providing initialcoordination or these two separate municipalities may be controlled ormanaged by separate service providers and have a peering arrangement orsome kind of commercial arrangement which enables the handoff. In eithercase, with the user entering the new municipality one or both of thesession coordinators 509, 511 will communicate such that the user may bepresented with a portal or it may be done automatically such that thesystem would update itself and connect the user back to existingservices. The flow-through provisioning may be operable to makeavailable the content and services in municipality #2. There may be amanual step of acknowledging that you have entered a second municipalitynow that you are in a new place, but once the user gets past theinitiation of services, then the user experience in municipality #1should be duplicative of municipality #2 (of course the secondmunicipality may have different capabilities from the first municipalitywhich would be automatically managed in the provisioning and appropriatenotifications to the user of modified services as well as a modifiedcost may be provided).

One way that this may be done is through a brief dialog with a cellphone. For example, as a user enters the new municipality, the systemmay send a dialog through a short messaging service that asks “have youentered municipality #2 John?.” This is one mechanism which may be donebut a variety of ways may be used for roaming. For example, the user mayhave already told his summer pass assistant that he is moving to a newarea and to authorize roaming charges. Therefore, when the user goes toa new municipality and the system detects the user in that municipality,the roaming municipality may send a message back to the sessioncoordinator 509 which can communicate a message to let the user operatefrom multiple municipalities. Or, the user may set via the dashboardthat a daughter's phone may first ask for some identification oracceptance before enabling access in municipality #2. Part of thisprocess may involve actually forwarding the request to a phone or shortmessaging service saying that your daughter has requested services inmunicipality #2 which provides the parent with notification of where sheis (or at least where her cell phone is). While there may be manymechanisms for providing such a handoff from municipality #1 tomunicipality #2, a basic feature is that the session coordinator 509and/or 511 will remap and provision existing services into the newmunicipality.

An aspect of this is that while this communication uniquely provides anotification of where the user is by registration, whether it iscellular or log in or WiFi system and so forth. As the user shows up ina new area, the network knows where he/she is and can identify thelocation. This is done by known method such as circuit-switch technologyand circuit-switch signaling to what is called HLR/VLR which is locationregistry and gives a profile of what services you are entitled to withyour summer pass or if you are roaming some where else, what profilescan be shared with a distant roaming place so that your services are thesame. In the context of a cellular communication, the HLR/VLR usesproprietary signaling and is not necessarily convenient for newerversions of IP systems. Accordingly, the present system is preferablydesigned to allow a function similar to cellular roaming but is moreappropriate to an IP environment. Accordingly, in the 4G context, toprovide a similar functionality to HLR/VLR that is transparent for theuser it is preferable to move this functionality up in thecommunications stack of where mobility is from the access layer up tothe session layer in terms of the IP communications stack. Previoustechnologies knitted together very low level physical communication pathsuch as phone numbers. In the present context, the functionality is in amore abstract layer above IP addresses which leverages the environmentbut still need to coordinate those services being used in a session andbeing able to move that session from place to place. Accordingly, ratherthan just a typical WiFi hot spot which does not do anything specialother than provide Internet access, an aspect of the present inventionis in addition to authenticating users on a system or a roamingenvironment, it also enables the configuring of the summer pass bundledgroup of services for the users as they move about into newenvironments.

A further aspect of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 6. This figureillustrates the priority usage and performance via transitioning gatesand service levels. The purpose for these service levels is thatapplications need to enhance transport completion in the sense ofproviding an appropriate quality of service and the multi-protocol labelswitching (MPLS) as needed at various levels for users as well asemergency responders. For example, as a person physically drives in amunicipality having a fiber network with availability of a summer passas is taught in the present application, there are bottlenecks that maybe identified at each “gate” or which may physically be freeway on-rampsor off-ramps or other roadways entering into, leaving or as part of thephysical structure of the municipality. For example, the capacity ofoff-ramps may be lower than a capacity in the middle of a business orentertainment district. This can result in increased peering that isrequired at the service provider level. FIG. 6 is divided into threecolumns. The left column 602 illustrates the municipal wireless accessfor on-ramps. The various services which may be provided may be, asshown in row 1, a municipal dedicated band which is dedicated to firstresponders. Local users or visitors may be provided with a premium orplatinum level of service which may be, for example, 3 megabytes. Otherlevels such as a premium gold level may be provided at, for example, 2megabytes, a silver level at 1 megabyte and a basic level at 500 Kbs. Ofcourse these levels are subject to change and only provide a generalillustration of the various service levels which may be offered. Thecenter column 604 illustrates a private backbone, such as AT&T'sbackbone, on a roadway with a municipality. Here there also may besimilar corresponding levels such as shown in row 1 where a municipaldedicated band is shown. Premium levels 2-4 may provide a platinumlevel, gold level and silver level of quality of service and an MPLSservice and number 5 illustrates a basic level. Similarly, column 606shows a similar arrangement of service levels for content providers in alocation of off-ramps. Part of a summer pass package may includedetermining or providing service level performance from end-to-end for acertain priority level. As is shown in row 2, the service performancemay be provided at a level such as a platinum level through transitionsinto and out of the particular municipality.

Another aspect of FIG. 6 relates to the various tiers of services. Forexample, the platinum level in Row 2 may also include other featuressuch as video, voice, games and data. The gold level may include video,voice and data without providing a game feature. Similarly, a silverlevel may only include voice and data and so forth. Accordingly, anaspect of the features provided herein is the demarcation of aparticular service package which may be offered to vacationers, businesstravelers, full-time users that live there, as well as in-network andout-of-network users.

FIG. 7 illustrates a network demarcations and Multi-Protocol LabelSwitching MPLS/QoS identifiers in support of end-to-end to getguaranteed network service level performance. Row 1 illustrates ageneral internet or NAP peering locations. This illustrates where a userwould have no service level agreement and you would need a contentservice level contract to be able to receive such service. Rows 704illustrate where a service level agreement, such as a summer pass, isavailable within a private network such as an AT&T network. This wouldfall under a data managed zone and may include such hardware features asa private backbone, such as AT&T's backbone, large, small and metronetwork hubs. Lower edge networks as well as last mile networks whichprovide wireless, fiber or DSL access to the last mile. Finally, thelocal device which is on a customer premises which is a mobile or afixed customer premise equipment CPE. Row 708 illustrates intelligentdemarcations support specifics defined in a MPLS/QoS network capability.These are established to reduce latency and content delivery. It ispreferred that within each municipality a contracted metro network andend mile will be negotiated in terms of MPLS/QoS for required bandwidthavailability. Either users or participants within the municipality andcontent providers will engage in content service level agreements thatwill be established to support content bandwidth availability which willsupport an end-to-end service performance guaranteed for the end user.Row 706 illustrates the municipal environment and the particularcomponents which if an entity such as AT&T approaches to provide asummer pass capability as disclosed herein, such hardware, shown in Row706 may represent the particular multi-network footprint providerhardware which may be possible or necessary for enabling the conceptsdisclosed herein.

Embodiments within the scope of the present invention may also includecomputer-readable media for carrying or having computer-executableinstructions or data structures stored thereon. Such computer-readablemedia can be any available media that can be accessed by a generalpurpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and notlimitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM,CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carryor store desired program code means in the form of computer-executableinstructions or data structures. When information is transferred orprovided over a network or another communications connection (eitherhardwired, wireless, or combination thereof) to a computer, the computerproperly views the connection as a computer-readable medium. Thus, anysuch connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium.Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope ofthe computer-readable media.

Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions anddata which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function orgroup of functions. Computer-executable instructions also includeprogram modules that are executed by computers in stand-alone or networkenvironments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs,objects, components, and data structures, etc. that perform particulartasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-executableinstructions, associated data structures, and program modules representexamples of the program code means for executing steps of the methodsdisclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executableinstructions or associated data structures represents examples ofcorresponding acts for implementing the functions described in suchsteps.

Those of skill in the art will appreciate that other embodiments of theinvention may be practiced in network computing environments with manytypes of computer system configurations, including personal computers,hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframecomputers, and the like. Embodiments may also be practiced indistributed computing environments where tasks are performed by localand remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwiredlinks, wireless links, or by a combination thereof) through acommunications network. In a distributed computing environment, programmodules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

Although the above description may contain specific details, they shouldnot be construed as limiting the claims in any way. Other configurationsof the described embodiments of the invention are part of the scope ofthis invention. For example, the context of the invention may be a home,a hotel, a convention center, a resort and so forth. Any geographic areamay utilize the principles of the “Summer Pass” to multi-media services.Other systems include enabling visitors to a resort or community topurchase a “bulk” multi-media/wireless access privilege for the durationof the stay. In other words, another aspect of the summer pass may be togrant several stratified grades of access and/or content privilegeswhich afford the user the ability to use wireless devices and to provideunlimited or stratified limited access to the Internet, email, VOIP,music, gaming, video, tickets for concerts, etc. for a flat time-basedfee. Thus, the user can use the wireless broadband device anywhere inthe community during the stay while enjoying the unlimited access tothese services and multi-media content. The access system according toan aspect of the invention may be coupled with a service managementsegment that authorizes users and dispenses multi-media to them on aprepaid basis corresponding to the time interval although other criteriamay also be applied such as a total throughput or a specific contentlimit. The management system provides the ability to authorize users notonly to access the system but to draw upon the particular media entitledby their summer pass. Accordingly, the appended claims and their legalequivalents should only define the invention, rather than any specificexamples given.

I claim:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, from a user,pre-registration information associated with a private resort;presenting to the user an interface for configuring a plurality ofservices available at the private resort; receiving input associatedwith granting a service of the plurality of services, to yield arequested service; and configuring a computing device withnon-subscription based, non-recurring access to the requested service.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is unknown to theuser until the computing device is made available to the user within theprivate resort.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing deviceis one of a laptop, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant, aportable gaming device, and a portable music device.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the computing device is leased to the user for aduration of the non-subscription based, non-recurring access.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the plurality of services comprises: callforwarding, accessing movies, accessing games, accessing music, andaccess to the Internet.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the privateresort has a fiber-fed star-topology network.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the plurality of services comprises a level of access.
 8. Asystem comprising: a processor; and a computer-readable storage mediumhaving instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, resultin the processor performing operations comprising: receiving, from auser, pre-registration information associated with a private resort;presenting to the user an interface for configuring a plurality ofservices available at the private resort; receiving input associatedwith granting a service of the plurality of services, to yield arequested service; and configuring a computing device withnon-subscription based, non-recurring access to the requested service.9. The system of claim 8, wherein the computing device is unknown to theuser until the computing device is made available to the user within theprivate resort.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the computing deviceis one of a laptop, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant, aportable gaming device, and a portable music device.
 11. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the computing device is leased to the user for aduration of the non-subscription based, non-recurring access.
 12. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein the plurality of services comprises: callforwarding, accessing movies, accessing games, accessing music, andaccess to the Internet.
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein the privateresort has a fiber-fed star-topology network.
 14. The system of claim 8,wherein the plurality of services comprises a level of access.
 15. Acomputer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, whenexecuted by a processor, result in the processor performing operationscomprising: receiving, from a user, pre-registration informationassociated with a private resort; presenting to the user an interfacefor configuring a plurality of services available at the private resort;receiving input associated with granting a service of the plurality ofservices, to yield a requested service; and configuring a computingdevice with non-subscription based, non-recurring access to therequested service.
 16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15,wherein the computing device is unknown to the user until the computingdevice is made available to the user within the private resort.
 17. Thecomputer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the computingdevice is one of a laptop, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant, aportable gaming device, and a portable music device.
 18. Thecomputer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the computingdevice is leased to the user for a duration of the non-subscriptionbased, non-recurring access.
 19. The computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 15, wherein the plurality of services comprises: call forwarding,accessing movies, accessing games, accessing music, and access to theInternet.
 20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, whereinthe private resort has a fiber-fed star-topology network.